Three Gamers REACT to Ridley Scott's NAPOLEON movie 

"He who tries to cover everything, covers nothing." Frederick the Great.

Ridley Scott needs to abdicate immediately, and be shipped off to some extremely remote island where he can do no more harm to history or to the legacies of great men in history!

The trailer had Napoleon charging on a horse, sword in hand to the black sabbath song 'war pigs' -- if that didn't telegraph it was going to be sh*t, I don't know what would...

Now all we have to do is bannish Ridley Scott to St Helena.

100% agree with you. No mention of Italy, and also no mention of Spain. No mention of the killing attempts against Napo. Nearly no mention of his brothers and sisters. No mention of his political reforms either. Scott prefered filming him copulating with Josephine.

Its interesting to see this getting trashed by both Critics and History folks. I mean, I knew the historical community wouldn't like it. But seeing critics say its not good either is incredibly telling

7:04 "It feels like it was too broad. It covered too much, and it covered nothing." _If you try to hold everything, you hold nothing._ - Frederick the Great

Napoleon was planned to be a double feature, accompanied by a biopic on Marshall Grouchy. Unfortunately, the Grouchy film won't arrive until next week.

Was anyone else scandalized by that scope on the Baker rifle?

Napoleon (1927) is also a great film. Its a 5 hour film, but if you don't have time just watch the first 40 minutes. Really great storytelling from silent era cinema. The shots are amazing.

This is what happens when a director rejects historians with open contempt and disdain and uses a British former "para" with no knowledge of Napoleon or black powder age tactics and strategy as his military advisor. His advisor is quoted as saying about Napoleon, “He would write a letter after a sea battle claiming he had taken four ships, when in fact he had taken just one. He was a big bluffer and people believed him, so he got away with it. This is how he made his way up.” Really? Sea battles? Good grief.

Here in France, when something goes really wrong, we say that “this is a Berezina”. And so is Ridley Scott’s movie about Napoleon….

Thanks guys! You just saved me $20.00. Even though the battle scenes in the trailers looked good, I had a suspicion that the movie would end up being mediocre at best. I'll wait until it streams for free. In the meantime, I think I'll re-watch the 1970 epic 'Waterloo'! That flick rocks!

" Italy surrendered without a fight." Wow, that really hit me hard. XD

Je suis wargamer et français. J'ai pleuré des larmes de sang pendant trois heures.

If you want a book on Waterloo, David Howarth's "A Near Run thing", is excellent and seemed to be something the script writers of the Waterloo film used. It is tough to get a copy of it though with all it's illustrations.

I knew from the moment that the first trailer dropped and I went to imdb to look at the cast list that there was no way this was going to be good, and I was not going to waste any money on it. This purports to be a biopic but omits Marshal Lannes!? What the actual funk? Scott's indignation with critics saying they're nitpicking when you're asking about such things. It's not even just the history that's bad, it's a horrible missed cinematic opportunity, on Lannes death in a letter to his wife: "The Marshal has died this morning of the wounds he received on the field of honour. My pain equals yours. I lost the most distinguished general in my army and a companion-in-arms for sixteen years whom I considered my best friend." Who needs him? Apparently... I mean, sure people need to be cut even in a 3hr film, but to cut Lannes, just no effing way. Particularly missing the opportunity to his deathbed reproach at the apogee of the empire: “It is not to concern you of my wife and children that I talk to you thus. In dying for you, I do not need to commend them to you, your glory makes it your duty to protect them, and in addressing you these final criticisms I do not fear that I shall change your disposition towards them. You have just committed a grave error, one which has deprived you of your best friend, but it will not change you. Your insatiable ambition will finish you. You sacrifice, without need, without attention, without regret, the men who serve you best. Your ingratitude pushes away those very people who admire you; those that are left around you are nothing but fawners. I see not one friend who would dare to tell you the truth. You will be betrayed, you will be abandoned. Hasten to bring this war to an end: it is the wish of your generals, and it is the wish of your people. You will never be more powerful, but you can certainly be more loved! Forgive a dying man these truths, for he cherishes you so…” Talk about a cinematic moment, why on earth was this not in the film? And don't even get me started bout the missed opportunity to have a man who was made for cinema, Marshal Murat, who I understand is *also* bafflingly absent. Just inexcusable for a so-called biopic.

Of the listed books at the end, I would especially recommend David Chandler's _The Campaigns of Napoleon._ This belongs on the shelf of everyone interested in the era.

The battle scenes in this movie felt like they were created using John Belushi's character from Animal House to describe what happened.

They managed to include Waterloo but not the Battle of Leipzig? Omg! Battle of Leipzig is even called the Battle of Nations, and yet it is not present in the movie.

It was painful to watch and I'm not talking about the battles. The scary thing is that my friend liked it. She knows little about Napoleon and enjoyed. Imagine the amount of people that will have this new common knowledge/ British satirical point of view of the Napoleon.

What a great video. I felt exactly the same way when I stumbled out of the theater, stupefied by what I'd just seen. Long and short of it is that it tried to bite off too much and they used the "Pearl Harbor" marketing plan: "Let's sell a schmultzy love story as an epic war movie!" There is rumored to be a longer version when it goes to streaming. Hopefully it's not more of the same.

When the French infantry attack at Waterloo they climb out of a trench, someone can be heard saying “over the top lads”. That and napoleon leading a charge at Waterloo is just inexcusable.

Nothing could beat Waterloo.

HAHAHA the Waterloo scene said everything to me. Exactly how I felt after the siege of Toulon part, everything went downhill fast.

Three hours of your lives you will never get back, Napoleon the new addition to the Marvel franchise, leading cavalry charges and moping his way accross Europe, unable to tie his shoelace's wiithout Josephine. A man who invented trench warfare to fight the battle of Waterloo, though the English didn't quite get the hang of it, climbing out of their trench to form square. And the battle of Austerlitz was the first Ice Capade, because the Allies had inadvertently deployed on a frozen lake. Who needs history books, when you have Ridley Scott's Hubris.

Stephen Spielburg I hear is using Stanely Kubricks script and research to make a 7 part mini series hopefully they do a better job. I just dont see napoleon at all with Phoenix, maybe because rod stieger did a great job and atcully looks like the older nappy. Also Heard none of his marshalls played a key role

I was hoping it would be the first of a trilogy. But now I'm glad they are only letting RScott make one.

If it makes anyone feel better, Kingdom of Heaven was also a giant mess in the theatrical release, but the directors cut was a totally different movie. Its a slim hope.

Don't worry guys, I've been a Napoleonic wargamer for forty years, and I also lost my 8 quid and three hours!!

the waterloo film is to be recommended but also dont forget there was a Napoleon mini-series in the early 2000s, with cristian klavier as Napoleon and Isabella Rossellini as Josephine - it wasnt a big budget series but it was good for the time. It certainly made a far better effort at Waterloo than the Scott film

Quite enjoyed the film, but agree with all the comments. It was to me a love story with interludes of battles, which were all over the place or was it a bio pic. It certainly was never a war movie 😅. Plus did you notice the amount of flags I thought I was watching shogun at one point 😂

Saw it last night. It was awful from a historians point of view. The big miss, as stated, was that Scott did not try to show what made him so great. That would have been the key to success. Instead, we see Napoleon making funny puppy noises when he wanted sex with Josephine. Oh and as for the battles. My eyes were continually rolling: Napoleon leading cavalry charges, battles quickly breaking down into 1 on 1 fights (Austerlitz), No La Haye Sainte or Hougoumont at Waterloo, which helped define the battlefield. Hilariously, my sensitivities were so on edge by the end of the film, I almost walked out when Blucher's Prussians entered the battlefield from the wrong direction!

David Chandler's "The Campaigns of Napoleon" would be a good place to start, all 1,172 pages of it.

Artillery Captain Mercer rides up to Wellington: "Sir, we have Napoleon in our sights! Shall we fire upon him?" Wellington: "Certainly not! In war 'tis not the business of opposing commanders to be firing upon one another!"

Ridley Scott 'lost his fast ball', decades ago. Agree 100% The Duelists.

So my thoughts kind of echo yours. The battles seemed to be tossed in for spectacle. The film would have been better to focus on Napoleon directing his generals around with distance shots of the battle going or troops marching off to the field in the background. By far if you are looking for battle scenes I recommend the 1970 film Waterloo. I was really disappointed they didn't focus on the key battles that made him recognized as the genius with the Italian campaign. And the fact that they didn't recognize the battle of Liepzig at all as the final defeat of Napoleon's Grand Armee. The rest of the scenes regarding his growth from a nobody to Emperor really was well done but needed more context. I think alot of it was left in the 4 hour cut we will be getting on streaming. The costumes and representations of the political events that occurred on his rise to power was excellently done. So if you are a fan of Napoleon the man and the history of the final years of the French Republic then this is the film for you.

Thx for the review ! So sad had high hopes and then we are presented with this... Waterloo (1970) and Napoleon miniseries (2002) remain the top things to watch. The ministeries focuses more on the life of napoleon and the battles are shown but on a small local scale but man you can feel napoleon come to life!

When you try to please everyone,you’ll end up pleasing no one.

All I have to say is that it kind of sounds like an updated version of the ABC miniseries "Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story" from 1987 or so. That one had Armand Assante and Jacqueline Bisset as the leads.

Trench warfare at Waterloo? Really?!? At one point "over the top boys" was shouted!! I don't play Napoleonics, I play Ancients, Medievals and WW2 so I can't claim to be a Napoleonic expert but some of stuff is so obviously silly you don't need to be an expert to know it's wrong.

I echo many of your thoughts. It is clear Ridley Scott does not like Napoleon. You'd think in a 150 minute movie, he'd find time to tell us why.

To put in a word for Ridley, he days he did read some books about Napoleon. Two of them, apparently.

Thanks for saving me the time and money. Maybe Ridley Scott can now focus on polishing Gladiator II.

Every one was naive. We all were looking forward to it. It was like a long SNL skit.😂😂😂😂😂

Watching the trailers, I thought that Joachim phoenix was too old for the part of Napoleon, brilliant actor though he is. Especially as the young Napoleon. It’s a shame, because I like both Ridley Scott and Joachim Phoenix.

Wellington: "Quite a bit of pounding going on here Picton. Let's see who can pound the longest." So many great quotes. Scott probably used none of them; instead made up his own.

Here s a great quote: “ you think you are so great cause you got BOATS!!!”😂😂😂

After watching this movie's version of Waterloo, it looked like Waterloo was someone's version of Napoleon Total War and said lets go with that. The movie had a beautiful look and the actress that played Josephine was good. That was about it.

Thanks for sharing your opinions! Very helpful. (I'd enjoy hearing what pivotal moments in Napoleon's life you'd like to see a great movie built around!)

I know life expectancy was low back in Napoleonic times, but Duke of Wellington & Napoleon were both 46 at Waterloo, Napoleon’s health and lifestyle aged him more than Wellington (who lived to 83) but the casting for the Duke was way off he looked mid 60’s 🤦🏻‍♂️

Guys, do you realize how WEIRD it is for the RU-vid algorithm to have a video done by friends!?! :D Great video!!!

Here's a line to use. "You think you're so great just because you have boats " or something like that. Lol

I think he may of confused 2 wars a century apart literally. And suffering dementia. I have the duelists, I looked for mistakes with uniforms, in ospreys book of Napoleon's hussars. I found nothing maybe the bear fur shako for the duel on horseback but I am being super picky. And its old so I could forgive things but it's good.

So you're saying "You laughed, you cried, you kissed 3 hours goodbye?"

I’m not saying the 1970 movie Waterloo was perfect, what I am saying was, if RS couldn’t afford to do Waterloo properly he should have cut his movie when Napoleon arrived back in France and tacked the 1970 movie in. The only mention I have ever found of Napoleon drawing a sword on the field was in ‘Anatomy of Glory’ shortly before the first abdication. A squad of Cossacks surprised him and his staff and they had to defend themselves until an Imperial Guard regiment came to their rescue. I have just come from watching this movie (about an hour ago), my opinion, a dogs breakfast and I won’t be waiting for the dvd release.

A longtime ago it was announced that Scott was going to make the movie that Kubrick had planned to make before his death. Scott had access to all Kubrick's material. It seems to me Scott made it his movie.

Funny enough, they briefly mention Italy when going to Egypt ... I believe it was something along the lines of "after taking Italy with no opposition, Napoleon heads to Egypt" ... I remember letting out an audible "Huh?" in the theater ... (easily missed, every 5 seconds there was something horribly inaccurate/wrong going on). It's like someone ask for 5 bullets points to summarize the entire Napoleonic War --- that was too much so they threw in the towel and just made it all up as they went. Trench warfare? Sure! The topper on that was when the French move out of their trenches at Waterloo (!!!!!) and you actually here someone say "Over the top men!" ... OMG!!!!! The 95th Riflemen wanting to take the 3-4 mile shot at Napoleon ... ugh ... then actually taking it when he is fleeing ... please just use a dull spoon to gouge out my eyes!

Ridley Scott. The Duelists was a great napoleonic film. I hear they have a 4 hour version of Napoleon coming out directors ✂️ cut

I was wondering which napoleonic miniatures i can get to play with my kids who are into this era.

Oh, here's your line, "This porkchop is my destiny!" can easily become "This die roll is my destiny!"

Thanks for saving me the money !!! Appreciated !!! Clearly, this film did not extend the "limits of glory" ...

I had such high hopes. Well Ridley is now 86 years old and I guess it shows. What Audience was he making the movie for? Women? Not the people who know the history. Now I don't know if I want to spend the money to go and see it. A good Napoleonic era film that Ridley made was "The Duelists"

Napoleon is Scotts Waterloo

"After I'm dead and I'm gone, what do you think the world will say of me?" "It will say that you extended the limits of glory." "Is that all I'm going to leave my son? The "limits of glory" ?"

Apparently, there will be a 4 hour "uncut" version released for streaming. I guess that that will just be another 1 1/2 hours of more of the same.

The Russian production of War and Peace is really good too.

Alexander the Great and Napoleon's campaigns are my favorites (and yeah, I'm a biological girl who loves historic wargames), so I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. I was soooo disappointed. I call false advertising here. The should have entitled this movie Josephine (with Napoleon); at least that would have prepared us for what was to come (or not). I love Joaquin Phoenix as an actor, but he was wrong for this part (there were rumors that he didn't understand the character). Napoleon was YOUNG...Like Alexander, another reason to be astonished at his military/political/social accomplishments. He just seemed to come off as some lost, whinny, guy who needed a woman to tell him what to do. It's like Ridley Scott couldn't figure out what kind of movie he wanted to make...Military? Soap Opera? It's like Scott made two different movies and then tried to knit them together. There was just so much historic material available to work with that there was no excuse for this morass of a movie.

Oh man - I am now so NOT looking forward to seeing this film. It’s going to be the train wreck you can’t turn away from.

Nice lighthearted review.

Some people say that this movie is Ridley Scott's Waterloo.

Your reaction to Napoleon sounds a lot like my reaction to the movie 300. That was the biggest piece of dog leavings I’ve ever had the misfortune to watch. In Nappys case I will wait for it to hit the $5 bin at Wally World then snag a copy (along with a sixer of tall boys) and settle in for my three hour grind. Vive ‘l Emperuer!

I never knew Napoleon led calvary charges until I saw this movie. How awesome that was!!!

Atleast we got one good line for naval games. "You think you're so great because you have boats!"

This movie will make people reevaluate Oliver Stone's Alexander

Napoleon was quarantined twice for Covid-19

Should have been called Josephine 😂😂😂

I was cautiously optimistic when I saw he was doing a Napoleon film. After "The Duelists" I kinda thought it might be good. I was incorrect.

yes, it stank!

Most of the action kinda reminded me of the battles in Sharpe (single unit with the battle raging on off camera or in fog), albeit flashier. With the exception of the panning long distance shots of full lines, it was too focused in on a small part of the action. Am hopeful a lot of the issues with this movie are somewhat resolved in the extended edition at 2 hours longer should flesh alot more out, as long as its not 2 hours of Josephine. Ridleys movies do tend to improve with the extended version but this one is starting from a much lower point than most of his other films.

The intro made me smirk

Decided I’m going to wait till it’s on streaming. Had a feeling this would be dodgy based on how bad Ridleys films have been. Last good film he did was Gladiator. Ridley just does whatever he wants even when it doesn’t work but then goes on a swearing rant when the movies flop.

"...why would you want to touch lil' Nippy...?" Napoleon scene, Night At The Museum 2.

This reminds me of my reaction to the Alexander movie when it came out.

You folks are fun. Have a like!

You've at least got two wargamer lines. When playing against the British: `You're only so great because you have boats' Or when having a snack 'destiny has bought me ('insert food item').

If I was a film producer/director that wanted to do a Napoleon movie. I would treat my movie as a prequel to Waterloo. Something someone could watch and then hop into Waterloo to continue the story. Why mess with a classic. So I would do the story of Napoleon’s defense of France. Start with disaster at Leipzig to show Napoleon’s dangerous situation and then focus on his amazing but doomed campaign in France itself. Gives plenty of highs and lows. Then when another filmmaker makes a Napoleon film they could follow the same suite and do a movie about his invasion of Russia. Basically keep making Napoleon films but start going back in his career starting with Waterloo as the benchmark in Napoleon filmmaking.

Ridley Scott did direct a good movie about the Napoleonic Wars - but that was his first modest feature, The Duellists. As a wargamer who does have experience as a movie reviewer, I was quite apprehensive given later Ridley movies such as Prometheus and Robin Hood were disjointed and disappointing (and remember the "landing craft" in Robin Hood?). The Last Duel was pretty good so I had some hope but not now. Making his start in TV commercials, Scott is brilliant with visuals but not in characterization or story-telling.

All you need to know is that there was a historical consultant on the film and Napoleon still shot the nose off the Sphinx.

I think the 2002 Napoleon mini series was the appropriate representation of Napoleon, more accurate and on point. Time wise it was also much longer to give a more detailed representation.

I love you guys! You are so cool and funny and really know the Napoleon story. I saw the movie in Paris and it’s so bad and ridiculous and annoying.

Another missed opportunity of an era that should have been given the respect it deserved.

Sounds like it's "Napoleon at Pearl Harbor" (or "The Battle of the Bulge" ...) Thanks for saving me 💸

Yeah.. WTF were they thinking..

Hilarious reaction guys. I had exactly the same reaction. I had a similar problem with the end of Gladiator where Ridley Scott wrote his own happy ending that had no basis in history. I enjoyed Gladiator but he invents an ending which is ridiculous and teaches the opposite lesson that history tells here. Ridley was remaking the 1960's movie "Fall of the Roman Empire" which understood the moment in history and how Rome had come to the end of the Pax Romana and the Five Good emperors and had changed from an empire of gold to one of rust and iron. The future would see five emperors in one year, the praetorian guard auctioning off the kingship , and a rule of a series of barracks emperors, so not what Ridley Scott showed at all. I always worried that people would believe that was real. The battle scenes in Napoleon were worse than useless. Misleading. Had nothing to do with the actual battles which are well documented. No Italian campaign. They didn't tell the actual story of the battle of Austerlitz. You come away with no idea why that was his greatest victory. Don't Cover the Battle of Nations or his campaign to save France from all the armies of Europe, or his conquest of spain or breaking of five? different European coalitions collected against Him or his rise through the chaos of the French revolution to prominence and then preeminence and then his second rise from exile with less than a thousand men behind him to snatch france back from the installed Bourbon monarchy. You need ten hours if you are taking france through this period. Cromwell covered a similar social and military upheaval again back in 1970 in 2 hours and 20 minutes and did a much better job. Now Cromwell certainly didn't have the career or impact of Napoleon but certainly had a similar career path. Josephine dies in May in 1814. Waterloo June 1815 Josephine was 32 when Napoleon at age 26 first met her. Joaquin Phoenix was too old to be Napoleon, even at waterloo and his Napoleon was all flaws with none of the virtues. Waterloo was a fabulous movie about the last 100 days of Napoleon's reign in 2 1/2 hours.

Joaquin Phoenixs' (lack of) accent..........He should have gone full Kentucky foghorn-leghorn so that we knew it was a satire from the start.

That was good. Where is Grouchy - where are my 10000 men.

I enjoyed the movie. I agree it wasn’t historically accurate, especially in the battle scenes. But I feel they did a lot better off the battlefield with things like the Coronation, and 13 Vendemiare. I also take into consideration that the cut of Napoleon we saw is not the final version. Ridley Scott’s four-hour director’s cut will be hitting streaming in the near-future. I have a feeling that, just like his DC of “Kingdom of Heaven,” the film will be much-improved by the extended cut. So, I’m waiting to hold final judgment until then.

Released on Thanksgiving, it should have been called "Turkey Too Long"

😂😂😂 I’ve got that Airborne Pegasus baseball cap 🧢 😂😂😂 I was a Paratrooper 1995-1997 😂